I have a 1999 Ford Contour SE. I left my headlights on while I was shopping - about 45 mins. The car started ok (thankfully). I turned on the wipers and they worked but when I turned them off they wouldn't stop while I was driving. They are stopped after I turn off the ignition but won't stop after being turned on again. Also, my blinkers are blinking really, really fast. I disconnected the battery for 15 mins to see if something would reset but that didn't help. I don't know if the two problems are related.

I really can't see where the problems are related, but there's always the possibility. I'd tackle them separately at first, but keep an eye out for shorts across wires. The turn signal is probably the flasher module or a bulb or two the have blown.

When I first turned on one of the blinker (can't remember which) before starting the car, it blinked normally and then after starting the car the other blinked fast. Then both began blinking fast. This may be my imagination and maybe the battery had run down causing the blinker to run slower.

I replaced the front turn signal bulbs and the flasher relay. That solved the rapid blinking problem but the front turn signals are not working. Any suggestions? Still haven't solved the wiper problem.

Bert -
Yes, I meant parking/running lights. But it just gets worse. The rear tail/stop lights and the gear shift lockout stopped working also. The rear hazard lights work, front don't. I replaced the stop light brake pedal switch and that didn't help - old one tested good. I can work around the gear shift lockout by manually flipping the lever inside the shifter console. I just don't see how all these are related. All these maladies seemed to have started after we had some rain - maybe. I'm trying to make sense of the wiring diagrams in my Haynes manual.